Gay marriage and the law

For the same reason straights would want to be "married" if the law only provided for civil unions. Because of tradition. You people act like homosexuals grow up in a cultural vacuum and then pop out of some womblike closet full grown wanting to supplant "heterosexual" tradition with some crazy new gig.Most homosexuals grow up with the same dreams of marriage and family that most heterosexuals do. With all the trappings. Including the name. It is quite a powerful cultural image and very few of us are immune. Do you really not know the answer to that question? Do you really think you would be happy in a marriage with someone you do not love? Wouldn't that make you feel empty and alone to be in such a sham marriage? We don't. The Constitution provides enough authority, dontcha think? The only people enacting special laws are the ones trying to "protect" marriage. All of those states that recently passed anti gay marriage laws defining marriage as between a man and a woman didn't have those "special laws" on the books before, did they? No. They had to "enact special laws" to make sure that heterosexuals got to keep their special rights, equality be damned.The upside down thinking on this issue really just boggles my mind.

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"You are metaphysicians. You can prove anything by metaphysics; and having done so, every metaphysician can prove every other metaphysician wrong--to his own satisfaction. You are anarchists in the realm of thought. And you are mad cosmos-makers. Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires. You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration." -The Iron Heel by Jack London"Hazards exist that are not marked" - some bar in Chelsea

While I see your point, that is not exactly the point I was trying to make.I am all for creating a legal contract much like RAZD envisions where any consenting adult parties may enter to receive and share the protections and benefits traditionally bestowed on the nuclear family. I think this would go a long way towards solving the childcare issue, the healthcare issue, the affordable housing issue, etc. It would most definitely have to be called something else, thoughI was simply answering HM's question about why "the gays" might possibly want to be "married."The word marriage is not going to go away. The idea of marriage is not going to go away. People won't stop getting married. Gay or straight. All that would change is that the government steps out of the "marriage business" and into the "creating strong family/community bonds business."I don't agree that it is at all like the white folk shutting down the schools so the black folk can't go. It is expanding the benefits of "marriage" to more and more people and to different groupings of people while everyone who wants to can still call their relationship a "marriage" if they so please. Many gay couples already call themselves married. I can call myself married all day long, but what really matters is the protections and benefits.

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"You are metaphysicians. You can prove anything by metaphysics; and having done so, every metaphysician can prove every other metaphysician wrong--to his own satisfaction. You are anarchists in the realm of thought. And you are mad cosmos-makers. Each of you dwells in a cosmos of his own making, created out of his own fancies and desires. You do not know the real world in which you live, and your thinking has no place in the real world except in so far as it is phenomena of mental aberration." -The Iron Heel by Jack London"Hazards exist that are not marked" - some bar in Chelsea